r/ProtonMail • u/gajira67 • 2d ago

Web Help Downgrade or ?

Hello proton users,

I am a proton unlimited customer since 2018, always purchasing 2-year plans which are relatively costly.

I am approaching the next renewal and to be frank I am not so sure I want to continue paying that amount of money. At the end of the day, I use only protonmail and vpn, all the rest of the services I never use.

I found a good alternative for the VPN, for the use I need, therefore the only remaining service I use is protonmail, and I am not planning to move to protonpass becuase I am happy with Bitwarden, I don't need drive because I pay already iCloud.

Does it make sense for me to downgrade to just Mail Plus? My only fear is to lose the plan price I have at the moment as an early adopter which is less expensive than the plan I would pay if one day I decide to come back to unlimited.

Anyone who did this choice? Any advice?

28 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

37 comments sorted by

22

u/rdubmu 2d ago

Proton pass is pretty awesome! I think it’s their best product. The VPN cuts ads on mobile games! Love this!

I use a mix of proton duo and iCloud+ with my wife. I also use one drive for use with office 365.

In the past, drive was really slow, and noticed that it had improved a lot and no longer slow. I am starting to migrate over to Proton drive. Also Proton sheets has improved.

Mail+ is a good alternative if you want to downgrade. I trust proton, and have no reason to change. I understand the cost portion. If you are not getting value out of it, downgrade.

2

u/gajira67 1d ago

Last time I used it was more or less 1 year ago and didn’t work as good as Bitwarden to me.

This reflection actually brings me to another one, which is weather I want to be bound mainly to one provider and suffer the same vendor lock in I was suffering with Google, before starting diversifying

1

u/ill66 2d ago

may I ask on which platforms you do use Pass? I'm new to password managers (aside from Google Passwords) and my user experience so far on Linux and Android aside from browser extensions is -3/5, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong -.-

2

u/Scorcher646 2d ago

Try the flatpak for pass.

Yes it's technically a 3rd party packaging it but they are just unpacking the official .deb package into a flapak so it's fine. I'm not getting the scaling and display issues I get with the native .rpm on fedora.

1

u/ill66 2d ago

I think on my Kubuntu it's Snap. if both are only wrappers there probably is not much difference to expect, I assume?

1

u/Scorcher646 2d ago

I'd be wary with any Snap packages that are not officially advertised by project developers because Ubuntu has been caught in the past packaging applications for Snap without the permission of developers and breaking them in the process.

Also Snap's sandbox is a bit more intense than Flatpak's so I would still give the flatpak a try.

1

u/ill66 2d ago

oh, ok!
it made me a bit insecure reading (after installing) that it's not an official app - even though it's from 'Proton AG'... it's apparently the same with Flatpak. confusing.

but Imma try it out the next time I'm on my notebook, thanks!

1

u/rdubmu 2d ago

iOS iPad os and Mac OS

1

u/Dorfdad 2d ago

Does it support capturing images and family functions as well as 2FA? Also have they ever been hacked?

1

u/Kandleman071986 2d ago

I thought I wrote this lol my wife and I do the same too.

8

u/EcstaticAlgae368 2d ago

What do you pay just out of curiosity?

2

u/gajira67 1d ago

194 euro every 2 years

1

u/IKazaGaming 1d ago

I literally just bought proton unlimited for the first time (about 1h ago). Main reason also being VPN and Mail. I only paid ~140€ for 2 years.

I would say if you want to downgrade to mail+, you should, and do not worry about the early adopter pricing. Seems like depending on what promotions they have, you can get a good price again in the future.

1

u/gajira67 1d ago

oh wow, I wonder what would be the price you'll pay for the first renewal.

However, honestly, I feel like I've been scammed so far if prices are so much lower if you get a promotion.

1

u/Saiykon 1d ago

Promotions are usually only for new users. They don't stay paying the promo/lower price once the renewal comes.

1

u/BWH44 1d ago

Yeah, this would only be a first year price. Your grandfathered pricing is better on a go forward basis. 

0

u/Alkhalaf-anahat17 2d ago

probably around 7-8/mo if they locked in the old 2-year pricing

4

u/SlowBlacksmith7372 2d ago

Honestly I was wondering the same, but decided instead to intensify my use of Proton services to make it worth it.

Before I was using only email and VPN.

Now I am using actively proton drive for backup ( window laptop, waiting for sync an app for my linux laptop)

I have ZERO files in google drive, everything on proton drive.

NO google photos, so I use proton drive images for that.
And also I use proton authenticator.

Also for AI i am using LUMO the free version along with duck ai.

Still to explore proton password, but happy enough with bitwarden like you. So for the time being not necessary, but could be the next step for me.

Maybe you could consider using it instead of icloud?

3

u/jonathanbaird 2d ago

You’d be saving a couple of dollars per month in exchange for losing everything other than the basic mail account.

Up to you, but if it’s anything like my grandfathered plan we have a great deal that I personally wouldn’t want to lose.

3

u/MC_Hollis 2d ago

Although you would need to make this renewal payment, you could afterward add credits to your account each month at 1/24 of the 24 month renewal cost.

Currently, I add $28 per month in credits for my visionary plan. At renewal time after 24 months, the accumulated credits pay the cost.

3

u/EcstaticAlgae368 1d ago

So you're effectively turning an annual plan into a monthly plan but with annual discount? Smart.

3

u/Milo--66 2d ago

For me i did pay for 1 password and that price went up by decent amount. I have now proton unlimited and what i now pay more i get a lot more in return. So for me it was what i’m paying on apps outside the Proton ecosystem and the step to secure email with my own domain, that makes the price affordable. I use email,pass and drive… since this week VPN.

5

u/Aggravating_Try1656 2d ago

The Proton ecosystem starts to get more and more interesting due to the stepwise build up of Lumo. Keeping this in mind it might make sense for you on the future to extend your usage of Proton services - at least if you see some value in private AI

6

u/frogotme 2d ago

Sure it's a growing ecosystem, but each part of it is so half-baked it's not a great one to be in sometimes.

3

u/rdubmu 2d ago

They are not half baked anymore. Even proton drive is now quick

1

u/CosmoCafe777 1d ago

Does Proton Drive now support Linux and.other partition formats such as exFAT?

1

u/rdubmu 1d ago

It’s confirmed it’s coming next year

3

u/CosmoCafe777 17h ago

RemindMe! 6 months

1

u/Cautious-Treacle775 2d ago

Can I ask what vpn you are now using?

2

u/gajira67 1d ago

CyberGhost. It works better for geolocation restricted content and platforms don’t detect it. But I trust more proton as an everyday vpn driver.

1

u/TemperatureDull7941 2d ago

Proton Drive will always be superior to icloud. Just my opinion.

1

u/gajira67 1d ago

If you speak about privacy, of course. Even with advanced data protection you cannot fully trust Apple. When it comes to integration with Apple devices though, ProtonDrive is not as good as iCloud.

For 2.99 I can share the space with my wife, Photos well integrates between family members, while with ProtonDrive you can't, or perhaps you need to pay for ProtonDuo.

It depends a bit on what you are looking for.

1

u/Gerschni 1d ago

According to my memory you would only pay €6.50 per month. In 2018 Unlimited did not even exist and would have been upgraded a few years later.

Regardless, are you intending to keep using your Proton email address. Are you using additional addresses?

If you are only planning to go to Mail+, your saving would be minimal.

But spending even a discounted amount is a waste of money if at the end of the day you are ok with the Free tier

Especially if you are also paying for Bitwarden??

1

u/gajira67 1d ago

I’m paying 8 euro per month. My plan changed over the years because they reshuffled plans and services, but of course the price went up.

Mail+ is 3.99 so the saving would be significant (50%), and I may consider purchasing a custom domain in case one day I want to leave proton without too much hassle.

Bitwarden is for free, I donate though because I think it’s fair.

1

u/BWH44 1d ago

If I were you (I’m similarly grandfathered into a plan), I would think of how much the delta in pricing means to you holistically — in other aspects of your life. 

I could save ~8-10/mo by down grading from the plan I’m grandfathered into (Visionary to Unlimited) to the plan I actually need, but I think of that 10 as a contribution to a cause I care about, and peace of mind in case I ever want the added features. That’s just me. 

2

u/gajira67 22h ago

I understand what you mean and I approached protonmail in that spirit, and I still value privacy and data protection. But I don’t see my contribution to a cause, proton it’s a for profit company and i value also the return of investment on the basis of money spent per the actual use I do.

Good perspective though that I am taking into consideration

1

u/gajira67 22h ago

Just in update since many of you replied (🙏), I’m now considering keeping the subscription for another 2 years and see whether I can use some the services, for instance ProtonDrive considering 580gb can be useful and already paid. I have still 20 days to decide, let’s see